Squirrel Cage Bar Grill & Motel — Restaurant in Willow River

Best waitress/bar tender lady, EVER!! So sweet!

We stopped at the Squirrel Cage Bar for a quick lunch on our way to Minneapolis from Duluth. Max ordered the Squirrel burger, which is a basic burger with cheese. No tomatoes or lettuce or onions. .it had pickles. It was actually a really tasty , nicely sized burger. He ordered the cheese curds as a side, which I picked over...so yummy!!

I asked our super nice waitress what she likes and she gave me a couple of choices, the Tom burger with jalapeños. .but, nah, I can't eat spicy stuff because my stomach complains, but the she asked if I like fish....walleye. I happen to love walleye.

She recommended the walleye fried sticks. Which I had with a side of fried mushrooms.

I'm not sure who in this bar has mastered the tempura for these things. But, master it they have.

The mushrooms were pretty juicy inside...almost too juicy. Beware burning yourself with them. I should have ordered Jo Jo's....otherwise known as home fries.

Upon leaving there was a surprise for me...but I won't ruin it for future customers, you all just will have to go check it out for yourselves.

There's also a ghost that dims the lights off and on ;)

Good food, good prices and really...

Came in to eat after a basketball game...so there was alot of us. We were willing to wait and all were very patient. The waitress said we had to leave because she couldn't wait on all of us. We decided to leave and go to docs instead. She stopped us and told us we could stay. We all wrote down our orders on napkins with names and she did orders that way. So she didnt actually take any orders. Food was coming out wrong and we all just dealt with it...as they were busy. Once the bill came, we paid. The waitress had the nerve to walk up to me and confront me about how much I tipped. I was on with another family's tab as I was alone. I paid for my meal and drink. My portion of the bill was $12 and I left an $8 tip. She says to me "sorry if you weren't happy with your service ". I was shocked...like I never said anything about anything. I told her I was fine and wasn't unhappy with my service and I didn't know what she was talking about. She says "well, most people tip 10%". Well lady I tipped more than 10%. I'm a waitress and I would never confront a customer like that. I did call back once I left and told a manager. She was very nice. But dang I felt totally called out and embarrassed. My first time there and...

Squirrel Cage Bar, Grill & Motel OK guys, so not impressed this time around. I called in advance before we left to inquire if you guys still had trees left. You said you did. My Mom and I made a special trip due to your promo weekend and to grab food before heading over to family's.

Our order was taken and it seemed to be taking a very long time so I inquired. The waitress said there was about a 45 min to hour backlog in the kitchen. It had been about that long so we thought it should be any minute now.

We saw more food come out of the kitchen but not ours. I inquired again as I noticed 3 other tables (whom arrived AFTER us) got their food and finished before ours was supposed to be out. I assumed they maybe called in ahead? When I asked on the ETA, our waitress said there were 3 to 4 orders ahead of us. No apology or explanation that the ticket wasn't turned in, nothing.

I also asked 2 waitresses about the tree promo, neither of them had a clue...even though there was a big poster on the entry door. We were also wanting to grab ice before we left but nobody came into the off sale side. Needless to say we left. What a waste of out time. This needs...